1. Field of the Invention
This disclosure relates generally to portal closures and more particularly to a closure for a shower stall.
2. Description of the Related Art
Shower stall closures are generally doors of the conventional kind, that is, having hinges on one side of the door and a latch on the opposing side. The latch is often a magnetic latch, or a spring loaded conventional door latch. The prior art teaches such shower doors in: Lehman U.S. Pat. No. 1,944,440, Backman U.S. Pat. No. 2,627,327, Whitney U.S. Pat. No. 4,598,433, Doan U.S. Pat. No. 244,535, Lax U.S. Pat. No. 3,803,764, Lyons U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,129, Kiefer US2005/0166366, and especially Risk et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,335,784. Such shower doors have certain disadvantages. First of all, shower doors of the conventional type must be made of a structural type of glass that is resistant to being broken and such glass is relatively heavy. Therefore, the framing of a shower stall must be robust in order to support such a heavy door and the framing must be secured to wall panels in an equally robust manner. Such construction is heavy itself, relatively expensive, and generally more time consuming to install. Another disadvantage of such heavy shower doors is that they are difficult to operate, especially by children, older folks and the infirm and senile. An obvious disadvantage of using large glass doors is that they present a significant danger upon being broken.